I'm a big believer that when it comes to steak, the best thing you can do is stay out of it's way and let it be a steak.
This weekend I bought some 60 day dry aged ribeye steaks from Willy's Butcher Shop here in Knoxville. I have only had steaks in the 40-45 day range so I was intrigued to try these beauties. Dry aging does some magical (actually scientific, per McGee's On Food and Cooking) things to beef:
- moisture loss results in concentrating the meat and flavor,
- enzymes break bland complex molecules (proteins, glycogen, ATP, fat) into smaller, more tasty structures (amino acids, glucose, IMP, fatty acids), and
- enzymes fragment support structures in the beef making it more tender.
So dry aging beef concentrates flavor, builds taste, and makes it tender. With a steak this great, I just needed to let it be itself and like I said - stay out of it's way. Simple rub, Grill Dome at 500°f, and a hair over four minutes a side.
Kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and crushed dried garlic make a great basic steak rub. Sure, you could just use regular black pepper and garlic powder but I like the coarse texture of the larger pieces of seasoning. I had a jar of dried shallots that Alexis had ordered and that mild marsala wine-like sweetness was the perfect aromatic addition to my simple steak seasoning. I put the black peppercorns, dried garlic, and dried shallot through a pepper mill set for coarse or give them a whirl in a spice grinder.
Shallot Steak Seasoning
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground dried garlic
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground dried shallot
- Stir all together in a small bowl. Liberally season steaks with it just before putting them onto the grill.
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| Salt draws out moisture, so either A) put the seasoning on right before the steak goes onto the grill or B) season it and let the steak rest on a rack for an hour so it will reabsorb the moisture. |
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| I was sure to let my Grill Dome preheat for a while to make sure that my Craycort cast iron grates were nice and hot before the beef hit the sizzle. |
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| It was just about 4 minutes, 15 seconds per side at 500°f. Don't worry about that little flare, as soon as I shut the Grill Dome lid, flames like this are brought down almost immediately - one of the many benefits of owning a kamado grill. |
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| Borrowing from Adam Perry Lang, I did a board dressing of reduced balsamic, parsley, and some of the shallot steak seasoning on the cutting board. |
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| We ate this straight off of the cutting board, without any sides. I'm not ashamed, I'm a carnivore. |
The flavor was nutty with a funky beefiness (in a totally good way), characteristic of dry aged beef. I love the amplified beef flavor. The texture seemed denser than regular steaks but still tender at the same time. To be perfectly honest, I don't know that I could tell a difference between 60 day and 45 day dry aged beef. But I can definitely tell a difference between the dry aged and regular steaks.
I want to play around with dry aging beef myself but I'd like to get a dedicated small fridge first. You need to keep the relative humidity around 70-80% and the temps between 34 and 38°f. As much as we are in and out of our fridge, it would be difficult to maintain those conditions.
In case you're wondering why I didn't do the reverse sear technique, two reasons. First, I like my steaks to be 1 1/2" or thicker for reverse sear and these were normal sized. Second, as much as I like the reverse sear for strip steaks and filet, I like my ribeyes grilled straight direct.
In case you're wondering why I didn't do the reverse sear technique, two reasons. First, I like my steaks to be 1 1/2" or thicker for reverse sear and these were normal sized. Second, as much as I like the reverse sear for strip steaks and filet, I like my ribeyes grilled straight direct.
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